Labor bureau to retain job-matching as main employment strategy
More job-matching sessions are expected to begin this year with the aim of lowering the local unemployment rate to a pre-Covid level, Chan Un Tong, vice director of the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), has recently hinted.
Pushing the unemployment rate down to the pre-Covid level is the target of the bureau, Chan pointed out.
Following border normalization, the official expects all trades to gradually revive. Therefore, more job-matching sessions covering a wider array of trades will be organized so as to get more people employed.
The frequency of sessions will remain at a minimum of three sessions per week. He added that in the middle of this month, there will be a session organized in association with local leisure enterprises. In addition, seminars will also be held to familiarize jobseekers with trade practices and insights, so that they will feel more prepared when interviewing for the jobs.
Believing that more positions in a broader area will be offered, the official is optimistic about the effects of the prospective job-matching sessions.
Despite refraining from making an estimate on this year’s unemployment rate, the official pointed out that both jobseekers and employers are optimistic over the city’s economic outlook for this year.
Responding to negative comments about the efficacy of past job-matching sessions, Chan disclosed that the average successful matching rate across all sessions held last year ranges between 40% and 50%. Online and constant matching services fostered a much lower success rate, at only about 20%.
Further, Chan suggested that this might be caused by the unfamiliarity of jobseekers with positions offered or the fact that they lacked the skills required for the positions. Last year, many jobseekers were forced to change career tracks because they could not find jobs matching their experience.
To solve the problem, the official revealed that the bureau would organize even more trade-focused job-matching sessions.
On the other hand, the official disclosed that job-matching sessions targeting the aviation industry will be on the table, in light of reinvigorated international travels.
Chan admitted that he was not knowledgeable about the job conditions in the aviation industry, when questioned if the industry had laid off workers during the Covid-19 restriction period.
He said that each airline company has had different tactics managing their human resources.
He then moved to discuss the exit mechanism concerning non-local workers, saying that no surge in applications for non-local workers has been seen recently. He stressed that non-local workers act as a supplementary workforce to the local workforce, and the bureau would prioritize matching local people with jobs.
